Danthonia

Caespitose perennials. Ligule a short ciliate rim, usually with tufts of longer hairs at the sides. Inflorescence a panicle but sometimes reduced to a few spikelets and appearing racemose. Spikelets pedicellate, laterally compressed, 2-10-flowered; glumes paired, persistent; florets bisexual, articulate above glumes; lemma firm, 7-9-nerved, dorsally rounded and glabrous, margins sometimes ciliate, awned from the sinus of an apical notch, the base of the awn usually twisting, lateral lobes short (in our species) to long, acute to acuminate, sometimes awned; callus hairy; palea thinner than lemma, 2-nerved, usually exceeding sinus of lemma; stamens 3; embryo ca. one-third to two-thirds as long as grain, hilum to about three-quarters as long as grain.